Akron BOE badmouths HB 315

Akron Beacon Journal, October 4, 2007

Districts can't carry retirees

The Ohio House is considering a proposal, House Bill 315, that asks for additional dollars from school districts and their employees to pay for health-care benefits for retired teachers. This initiative is being driven by the State Teachers Retirement System, along with active and retired members of STRS interest groups.

H.B. 315, sponsored by Rep. Scott Oelslager, R-Canton, seeks to increase employee and employer shares to STRS by 2.5 percent of certificated staff payroll, for an overall increase of 5 percent. These increases would be phased in over a five-year period, in 0.5 percent increments.

Currently, employers contribute 14 percent and employees contribute 10 percent of payroll to pay for retirement benefits.

As members of the Akron school board, we oppose any such increase in costs to school districts.

At a time when funding for our schools is limited, it is not in the best interest of our district to provide additional retired-educator benefits, taking away dollars that could affect the quality of education for our students today.

These additional mandated costs, if approved, would not put more teachers in the classroom, buy textbooks or implement new programs. Rather, they would go directly to STRS for retiree benefits.

For the Akron Public Schools, this increase, when fully implemented, would be $3,775,000 per year, which equates to an additional 1.26 mills in property taxes dedicated solely for district retirement contributions.

The public and private sectors are facing the challenge of providing affordable, accessible and high-quality health care for both employees and ultimately, retirees.

Instead of asking school districts, already struggling under many financial constraints, to provide additional funding, STRS should take a responsible look at its own retirement and health-care benefits.

Demographics such as life expectancy and the number of years people are expected to remain in the work force have changed since the current benefit structure was put in place.

STRS must live within its means rather than seek higher levels of funding from school districts. Linda B. Kersker President, Akron Board of Education Akron

Editor's note: This letter also was signed by the other six members of the board.